In the castle of "The Beast"
Behind the Scenes (Literally)
Story and Photo by Ken Graham
Look again at the cover of this month's Blue Mountain News and ignore the people for a minute. There's a village there, with houses and trees and a cobblestone path. And it didn't just appear out of nowhere. That's acrylic paint on four plywood panels. It's one of the two backdrops for this year's production of "Beauty and the Beast", and most of it was painted by Dayton artists Debbie Baxter and Brian Graham.
Baxter helped paint the backdrops for the first musical at the Liberty Theater – "The Music Man", in 2001. The same panels were used then. "This is at least the eighth set that's been painted on those panels," says Baxter. Besides all of the fall musicals, the panels have been used for one or two other performances at the theater. "Each time we whitewash the panels and start over," she says. "It's kind of sad, in a way."
This year, Brian Graham designed the village scene and Baxter designed the scene on the reverse side of the panels, which is the interior of "The Beast's" castle. Since "The Music Man", Baxter has led the set painting project for each fall musical at the Liberty Theater. When Graham moved to Dayton three years ago, he agreed to help out. Since then, he and Baxter have been the main set painters, although there have been many important helpers. This year they've had valuable assistance from Ginger Thronson.
Baxter teaches art at Dayton Middle and High schools, and this year some of her seventh- and eighth-graders came and helped sketch out the castle scene. And they learned how set-painting works. "We have a design study, which is really a small color painting of the proposed set," says Graham. "We get approval of the study before we start on the panels." After the play's director and production crew approve the study, a grid is drawn on it and on the panels. Then all of the outlines are sketched. "After that, we just fill in the colors," says Baxter.
Copyright (c) 2007, Blue Mountain News